page_title: Madison Keys
section_title: 2014: First WTA title
hierarchical_section_title: Madison Keys / Professional career / 2014: First WTA title
caption_attribution_description: Madison Keys at the 2014 Internazionali BNL d'Italia
context_page_description: Madison Keys is an American professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high ranking of No. 7 in the world in October 2016 and has been consistently ranked inside the top 25 by the Women's Tennis Association since early 2015. Keys has played in one Grand Slam tournament final at the 2017 US Open, and also competed at the 2016 WTA Finals. She has won five WTA tournaments, all at the Premier level. Her biggest title came at the 2019 Cincinnati Open, a Premier 5 event.
  Known for having a fast serve and one of the most powerful forehands in the game, Keys has used her aggressive playing style to become one of the leaders of the next generation of American tennis alongside Sloane Stephens and CoCo Vandeweghe. She debuted in the top 10 of the WTA rankings in 2016, becoming the first American woman to realize this milestone since Serena Williams seventeen years earlier. When Keys and Stephens faced off against each other in the 2017 US Open final, they snapped a streak of no American women aside from the Williams sisters appearing in a Grand Slam singles final since 2005.
context_section_description: In Keys's second tournament of the year, she returned to the Sydney International and made her first Premier semifinal. She cruised past No. 11 Simona Halep in the first round before losing to No. 9 Angelique Kerber. She next played at the Australian Open, but was upset by Zheng Jie in the second round after dropping a double break advantage in the final set. In February, Keys made her Fed Cup debut against Italy. She lost her only singles match to Camila Giorgi but managed to win the dead rubber doubles match with Lauren Davis as the United States lost the tie. Keys again participated in Fed Cup in April. The United States lost this tie to France 3–2 and were bounced from the top-tier World Group. Keys won her first Fed Cup match against Alizé Cornet but was unable to win her next singles match or the decisive doubles rubber with Sloane Stephens.
  Keys entered the Internationaux de Strasbourg having won back-to-back matches just once since Sydney. She was able to regain her form in France and reached the semifinal at the tournament. At the French Open, she drew tenth-seed Sara Errani, a clay court specialist, and lost in the first round. In the grass court season, Keys won her first WTA title at the Eastbourne International, a Premier-level tournament. She defeated two top ten players at the event, No. 7 Jelena Janković in the first round and No. 9 Kerber in the final. This was her only ever victory over Kerber, who would dominate Keys in their future matches. During the final, she also hit a 126 miles per hour (203 km/h) serve, which would have been the fifth fastest ever on record in women's tennis history if the tournament was officially collecting serve speed data. The title made the 19-year-old Keys the youngest American titlist since Vania King in 2006 and the first teenage titlist since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009. Keys maintained that form to reach the third round at Wimbledon but was forced to retire due to a leg injury.
  Keys won less than half of her matches the remainder of the season. One of her best results came at the Cincinnati Open, where she beat an in-form Cornet, before pushing No. 6 Maria Sharapova to three sets in the second round. At the US Open, Keys was seeded for the first time at a major at No. 27 but suffered a disappointing second round loss to qualifier Aleksandra Krunić. She closed the year by reaching the quarterfinals at the Japan Women's Open. Keys maintained a steady ranking inside the Top 50 throughout the year and finished the season at No. 31 in the world.
caption: Keys at 2014 Italian Open
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